Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions - Essay Example

My friend agreed to lend me the amount without interest as long as I paid it back on time. I used the borrowed money to buy some school books and also some decent clothes. I had planned to pay it back on time using my earnings from my part-time job waiting on restaurant tables in my spare time on weekends when I am not so busy.

My dilemma is that I now already have the $100 in my pocket, ready to pay him back. A totally unexpected problem came up just the other day, with my mom informing me my grandma had suffered another of her usual asthma attacks and needed some medication immediately. This out-of-the-blue development caught me by surprise since grandma had been well long enough in this regard, meaning she had not suffered from asthma for several years already and I had thought she had finally gotten over this ailment. My mom called up me to buy my grandma her medicine at the nearest drugstore within our locality. The problem was that just a few minutes earlier, I called up my friend and informed him I was going to his place to hand him back his money as repayment and as a fulfillment of my promise a month earlier to pay it back on time.

Assignment 2

Our neighborhood is a bit run down and is on the poorer side of our community. As such, it has been a haven for petty criminals although I have some friends among them. These friends are usually just juvenile delinquents who have plenty of time on their hands and nothing better to do with their spare time and extra energy. The key to survival in this part of town is to just keep your head down and mind your own business so nobody will interfere with you also.

On one of my shopping expeditions in one of our neighborhood grocery outlets, I meet 2 former schoolmates from high school. They both said they have no jobs and had fallen on hard times brought on by the economic downturn. They were looking for a job and both said they had a hard time landing any job at all due to their having dropped out of school. After a few minutes, another guy (whom I do not know at all) came up to us and asked the two if they had some stuff. At first, I was not able to comprehend right away what stuff meant but I knew later when my two former schoolmates produced a packet of marijuana. They had been dealing with something illegal!

I know there are neighborhood patrols who try to keep drugs from our place. There is a standing but unspoken agreement among our people to turn in someone they know who deals with these illegal drugs. My dilemma is whether to inform authorities about my friends' activities or not at all. My ethical dilemma is due to their own actions, not mine (Pollock, 2008, p. 22). In the strongest moral terms, I have been forced to re-examine my values of friendship and honesty.  My two former schoolmates expect me not to snitch or turn them in while my neighborhood will expect me to report their presence and their illegal activities. My decision will be due to the values I have and values are important in making judgments (Kirst-Ashman, 2008,  & Hull, p. 372).